Navy Nagar

The region today called Navy Nagar originally consisted of an uninhabited island called "Old Woman's Island" (a distorsion of its older native name "Al Omani"), mostly covered with forests.[3] In 1743, the island of Colaba was leased to a British man called Richard Broughton at a sum of Rs. 200 per annum, a lease that was renewed in 1764. At that time, Colaba was well known for the variety of fish that were found in nearby waters, including bombil (the dried form of which is called "Bombay Duck"), rawas, halwa, turtles, crabs, prawns and lobsters. By 1796 Colaba became a cantonment for British troops. Gradually, troops began to build structures towards the southern end of the island, then called "Upper Colaba", and a meteorological observatory (today known as Colaba Observatory) was established in 1826.[4]

With the completion of the Colaba Causeway in 1838, these remaining two islands were joined to the rest of Mumbai. While Colaba became a centre of commerce with the opening of the Cotton Exchange at Cotton Green in 1844, the southern part of the island continued to remain mostly under the control of the defence.

During the subsequent construction of Colaba, a large network of bungalows called the "Sick Bungalows" (today INHS Aswini) were built.[5] The church today known as Afghan Church (after the First Afghan War of 1838) was consecrated in 1858 and work on the steeple was concluded in 1865. Horse-drawn tram-cars operated by Stearns and Kitteredge (whose offices are today's "Electric House") provided transport to this new developed area. Afghan Church was also built around this time, making it one of the earliest structures built in the area. The spire of the church was often used by sailors to get their bearing.[6]

Prong's reef lighthouse, located at the southern tip of the island, was constructed in 1875, in the same year as Sassoon Docks were built by David Sassoon on reclaimed land to the north of Navy Nagar.[7] The development of a railway terminus (BB&CI Railways) in Colaba and land reclamation pushed existing indigenous kolis to the edges of the island, towards an area to the north of today's "New Navy Nagar". Meanwhile, structures and bungalows continued to be built sporadically in Navy Nagar to house members of the troops. In 1926, a motor bus route was introduced between Afghan church, located at the fringes of Navy Nagar and Crawford market.[8]

Navy Nagar truly started to be developed in the 1960s with the laying out of neat well planned roads, setting up of the Western naval command, construction of sailors quarters in the vicinity of a market for defence personnel (Sumitra market) and the building of accommodations for bachelors, a mess for officers (Command mess), a sports stadium and swimming pool (Kohli stadium), accommodations for the survivors of the naval ship INS Khukri (Khukri house) and the setting up of the TIFR. In the 1970s, A large circular canteen (INCS Canteen) was built for defence personnel along with residences for petty officers (buildings "A" to "K"), residences for officers (buildings "L" to "Z") and a school for their children (Kendriya Vidyalaya 1). Two cinemas were built specially for defence personnel - an open-air cinema for sailors (called "The Ground") and an enclosed cinema (called "Defence cinema"). In 1979, multi storied buildings were constructed to accommodate the growing numbers of officers, beginning with buildings called Swati, Meena and Bharani. All through, large open spaces with gardens were provided alongside these buildings.[9]